I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to automatically deployable cartons or boxes for containing and packaging various goods. More particularly, the present invention relates to heavy-duty corrugated pallet boxes that can be stored flatly until use, whereupon they are deployed simply by unfolding. Known prior art germane to my invention is classified in United States Patent Class 224, Subclasses 108, 108.1, 109, and 110.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous different corrugated containers have been proposed over the years for confining and protecting heavy or bulky palletized loads. Wooden pallets are in widespread use in relatively unfriendly industrial or warehouse environments, where they are stacked upon one another until use, and thereafter forcibly manipulated and moved about by powerful fork-lift trucks. During transit, these heavily laden pallets are routinely subjected to mechanical stresses and shocks as they are aggressively and sometimes carelessly moved about during typical loading and unloading operations. A variety of heavy duty, corrugated boxes have been designed strictly for pallet use. Many of these fold together and have a plurality of locking straps or flaps that interconnect with portions of the pallet. Most have some form of base that engages the pallet, with an uptight, generally tubular body that is polygonal in shape, with octagonal and hexagonal configurations being the most common.
Many common, large-capacity pallet boxes must be inverted before unfolding. Either the box must be handled by two workers, or one worker must push it against a wall or similar stationary object to force it to deploy. Typically, six to eight flaps must be manually aligned and interfitted, with two or more major flaps on the bottom locking the device together. Once the main bottom flaps are locked, the box is turned over for use. Some boxes of this description are so flimsy that the mere act of flipping them over forces the box apart, necessitating re-assembly prior to loading. Pallet boxes used in various food industries are provided with plastic liner bags prior to filling. After the moisture-proof bag is properly placed inside the pallet box the container may be filled with a thousand or more pounds of meat product such as chicken, beef, or pork. Such heavy loads are routine in the industry, and container damage, and in some cases failure resulting in spillage, are not uncommon events.
Many foldable, corrugated pallet boxes exist in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,562 issued Jan. 26, 1960 to E. C. Pellaton, entitled Polygonal Carton Construction, shows a collapsible carton with folding side walls that is adapted for foldable erection from a flat, collapsed storage state. The carton may be unfolded from a flat, collapsed blank useful during transportation and storage to the job site whereupon deployment is accomplished through unfolding. The box has a cross-sectional shape of a regular hexagon and has a so-called automatic bottom structure. Upon erecting the carton, the bottom structure and side walls thereof automatically assume their proper position without requiring the application of any setting up force to the interior of the carton to effect proper positioning of the bottom structure relative to the side walls. U.S. Pat. No. 2,922,562 This reference is the closest prior art known to me. However, modern machines that could build this type of pallet box are impractical and inordinately expensive. Although this design is a self-erecting, because of the way that it is glued, the deployed box, lacks strength. Because of it's one piece nature it cannot handle large loads, and it is not practical for bulk packaging.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,417 issued to Osborne on May 16, 1978 shows a heavy duty, octagonal pallet container with an upright, tubular body portion comprising a plurality of outer side walls. An inner liner is cut and scored to correspond to the octagonal shape of the container. Although this design can be manually folded, it has a separate piece that has to be interlocked into the bottom, which complicates and slows down deployment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,266 issued to Dempster on Oct. 10, 1978 shows an octagonal shaped pallet box for use with heavy, palletized loads of meat products. Folded side panels and corner panels that are interengaged with suitable tabs form the bottom wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,568 issued to Swan Sep. 4, 1979 shows a polygonal pallet container foldably formed from a unitary blank of corrugated material. A plurality of rectangular side panels forms the tubular enclosure. Lower edge flaps interlock with mating flaps on the container bottom assembly. Designs of this general type that seek to build in some skid panels require too much raw materials (i.e., corrugated board) and they are too expensive for today's market.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,146,169 issued to Meyers on Mar. 27, 1979 shows a folding paperboard carton with a self-locking bottom wall panel structure, and multiple hinged side wall panels. The bottom wall panel structure a first bottom wall panel hinged to one of the confronting first side wall panels, and a second bottom wall hinged to the other of the confronting first side wall panels.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,098 issue to Lopez on Apr. 22, 1980 shows a polygonal bulk container that is collapsible to a flat storage condition. The tubular body has a plurality of rectangular panels hinged together to yield a polygonal cross-section.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,556 issued to Boyle on Feb. 2, 1982 discloses a one-piece carton blank that can be shipped and stored flatly and then unfolded. Numerous cooperating panels unfold as the side panels are pressured. This type of design does not functions adequately for heavy duty pallet loads common to bulk packaging.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,341,337 issued to Beach, Jr. on Jul. 27, 1982 shows a polygonal pallet container having a separate tubular section and bottom. This design requires extra flaps that must be manually glued to the outside to hold large loads. The requirement of a separate machine for gluing external flaps at the job site to the outside of an existing box makes the design commercially impractical.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,885 issued to Negus, Sr. on Apr. 12, 1988 shows a large, hexagonal bulk container comprising a plurality of rectangular panels hingedly connected along various scores. A similar six sided bottom panel has side edges abutting against the adjacent inner walls of the main body. The construction of the bottom tab and glue flaps strengthens the container against collapsing. The one-piece design of the blank makes it impractical for economical manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,927,026 issued to Gossler on May 22, 1990 discloses a pallet box that can be folded on top of the pallet. A pair of overlying floor boards with folding end flaps are attached to the pallet. The knock-down feature enables the box to lay down against the pallet and to make a very compact shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,035 issued to Wischoff on Aug. 14, 1990 shows a foldable hexagonal pallet container. A plurality of locking flaps are arranged in overlapping interlocking relation. The device is essentially a produce box suitable for light-weight loads. It must be manually unfolded and manually locked, as it is not self locking.
U.S. Pat. No. issued 4,976,353 to Halliday on Dec. 11, 1990 discloses an analogous, square pallet box container with a base that is secured to the pallet. Several elongated tabs depending from the base can be foldably engaged with a slot to secure the container on top of the pallet. The box adheres to the pallet by means of a flap that is cut and folded in such a way to flow through and under the contained product.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,100 issued to Rigby Jan. 16, 1996 depicts a paperboard carton with an automatic bottom. A peeling feature that allows the consumer to remove the carton from the product in a continual, spiral strip. The lack of a bottom structural flap limits the effectiveness of this design in holding products.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,991 issued to Gasper on Feb. 10, 1998 shows a multi-side, polygonal pallet box of the type known as a bellows-fold bottom in the industry. Flaps are folded within the container when the container is in a folded-flat condition, but automatically form an operative bottom structure when the flatly-disposed container is subsequently unfolded and deployed. This design lacks modern self-locking mechanisms. Furthermore, during erection the box must be manually turned upside down for proper folding.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,571 issued to Edelman on Jul. 7, 1998 shows a foldable, multi-sided pallet box that automatically “pops up” during folding. During deployment various tabs pop into proper alignment as flat sidewalls are squeezed towards each other. This six-sided design has a six-sided bottom that folds outwardly when pushed down.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,465 issued to Garton Jul. 13, 1999 shoes an octagonal pallet box that can be manually deployed from an initial flat condition. The floor blank is attached to a separate main blank by external connecting flaps disposed about the lower perimeter of the box walls. Although this device is self locking, experience has shown that the design is rather hard to erect. Further, this type of design is not practical to make on a standard industrial corrugator.